5 from 1 vote

A Buddha bowl recipe made with Crispy Tofu tossed in a sweet garlicky lemongrass honey soy sauce served with a variety of fresh produce over rice.

I love Buddha bowls, not just because they are gorgeous and fun to make but mostly because it has so many different flavours and ingredients going into it, that its always full of different and delicious flavours. It's so easy to be creative with Buddha bowls, because you can basically mix and match your favourite fresh and local produce or swap out different sauces and it tastes different every time.

The cool thing about Buddha bowls is it can have many components, but you can make it as complicated (with lots of layers of flavors and ingredients) or as simple as you like. For this Buddha bowl, I had only 3 requirements - it had to have a wide range of flavours, different types of textures (crispy tofu and seaweed salad!) and uses fresh and colourful produce.

INGREDIENTS FOR BUDDHA BOWL

CRISPY TOFU

Tofu - For this Buddha bowl recipe, use firm tofu.
Potato Starch - Lightly coating each tofu piece before pan frying it, gives you an extra crispy layer!

GARLIC LEMONGRASS HONEY SOY SAUCE

Lemongrass - Use fresh lemongrass for this if possible. You can also use the frozen pre-ground lemongrass for this as well. Make sure you chop this finely since lemongrass is very woody and can get stuck between your teeth if it is large and chunky.
Garlic - Use fresh garlic for this, finely chopped.
Soy Sauce - I like to use low sodium soy sauce for this.
Honey - I like to use honey over sugar for the sauce because it gives the sauce a thicker and syrupy consistency.

TOPPINGS

Wakame Seaweed Salad - This is a completely optional ingredient but has a wonderful sweetness and crunch to it.
Braised Shiitake Mushrooms - I use dried shiitake mushrooms for this and soaked them for 1-2 hours in water to reconstitute it. Then I braise it in a sweet soy for 10 minutes and thinly slice it.
Fresh Local Produce - Pick and choose your favourite local fresh produces! Some common ones I like to use are cucumbers, cabbage, baby tomatoes and occasionally radishes
Pickled Onions/Radishes/Carrots - I usually like one component of the Buddha bowl to be a light pickled vegetable. For something quick, squeeze fresh lime juice over sliced red onions and soak them for an hour. I also have a quick and easy pickled daikon recipe as well which you can easily add carrots to.
Mango - I like to occasionally use fresh mango as well to give it a sweet element. For a sweeter and softer mango, use Ataulfo mangoes. If you prefer a firmer mango with a bit more tang, then use the large firm red/green mangoes.

GARNISHES

Jazz up your Buddha bowls with additional garnishes such as green onions, roasted seaweed and/or toasted sesame seeds or our homemade furikake recipe!

POKE BOWL vs. BUDDHA BOWL

Buddha bowls are often plant-based, where the protein also comes from tofu, beans or tempeh; whereas a poke bowl typically uses bright raw fish as their protein source such as salmon or ahi-tuna. Regardless if you are making a poke bowl or a Buddha bowl, you can easily switch out your grains (rice, bulgur, quinoa) and fresh local produce for a bit of variety.

HOW TO GET EXTRA CRISPY TOFU

Getting extra crispy tofu is quite easy and can be done in 2 steps.

Step 1: Remove as much water from the firm tofu as you can. To do this, I like to place my tofu on a plate with a high lip (to catch the water), and then place a cutting board on top of it. Then to weigh it down, I use a heavy bowl or a heavy object. Gravity will do all the work for you. After an hour, you will notice the tofu sitting in a pool of water, you can discard the water and use the tofu. If you want to remove even more water, continue the method for another hour.

Step 2: Lightly coat and rub potato starch on the tofu before you pan fry it. You don't need much, just enough to lightly coat it. You need to also make sure there is enough oil in the pan to lightly pan fry the tofu as well. I found that when there is not enough oil in the pan, the direct contact from the frying pans heat will burn the tofu. Make sure not to overcrowd the pan as well, while the tofu is forming the crispy crust, the potato starch can get sticky and 'glue' the tofu together if there isn't enough space.

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Crispy Garlic Tofu Buddha Bowl